Egypt calls for anti-Daesh coalition
Egypt called on the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq to confront militants in Libya, a day after the group released a video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christian Egyptians there.
"Egypt renews its call for the international coalition against the Da'esh terrorist organisation ... to take the necessary measures to confront the terrorist Daesh organisation and other similar terrorist organisations on Libyan territories," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
France, Egypt urge 'new measures' against Daesh
France and Egypt on Monday urged the UN Security Council to meet and mull fresh measures against Daesh after militants posted a video showing the decapitation of 21 Coptic Christians.
French President Francois Hollande and his Egyptian counterpart Abdul Fattah Al Sissi spoke by telephone after the gruesome footage was released by Daesh in Libya, prompting Egypt to launch air strikes in its western neighbour.
"They highlighted the importance that the Security Council meet and that the international community take new measures to face up to this danger," read a statement from the French presidency.
On Monday, the two countries will ink a deal in which France is selling 24 Rafale fighter jets to Cairo, in its first foreign sale of the multi-role combat aircraft.
Air strikes launched
Amid outrage and demands for revenge over the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya, Egypt on Monday carried out air strikes against Daesh targets in Libya after a video emerged purporting to show militants decapitating 21 Egyptian Christians kidnapped in the neighbouring country more than a month ago.
State television showed footage of Egyptian fighter jets taking off to conduct the strikes.
Witnesses told AFP there were at least seven air strikes in Derna in the east, a hotbed of militancy since Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011. It was not immediately clear whether other areas were also hit.
"Avenging Egyptian blood and retaliating against criminals and killers is a duty we must carry out," the military said.
On Sunday, Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi vowed a response, saying "Egypt keeps for itself the right to respond at the appropriate time in retribution for its martyrs." he said.
"I have made directives that all necessary measures be taken to bar Egyptians from travelling to Libya," Al Sissi said in a televised address. "What is happening now in Libya threatens international security and peace."
Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Foreign Minister, condemned the killings and called it an "ugly crime".
Last week, Al Sissi ordered an emergency airlift to evacuate Egyptians from Libya, which has been roiled by violence in recent months.
The victims shown in Sunday's video were abducted late December and early January in two separate raids in the Libyan city of Sirte, a stronghold of Islamist hardliners.
Later, a group that has sworn allegiance to militant Daesh, claimed responsibility for their abduction and threatened to kill them to avenge what it called the Egyptian Coptic Church's alleged persecution of Christian women converted to Islam.
In the video, the hostages are seen led by masked militants on a beach where they are forced on their knees before they are beheaded. The sea water then appears mixed with blood.
The five-minute footage is titled: "Message signed with blood to the nation of the cross".
Egyptian state television said that the government has declared a week of mourning.
The Coptic Church said in a statement it is confident that authorities "will not rest until the evil murderers are dully punished".
Egypt's Christian minority are staunch backers of Al Sissi, who led the army's 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi.
Tributes for the Copts slain in Libya poured in from Islamic and political institutions.
French President Francois Hollande, whose government is poised to sign a deal selling Egypt advanced Rafale fighter jets on Monday, expressed his "concern at the expansion of Daesh in Libya".
Al Azhar, Egypt's top Islamic body, condemned their killing as a "heinous, criminal act". "What Daesh did has nothing to do with religion," Al Azhar said in a statement.
Al Wafd, Egypt's oldest liberal party, urged authorities to step up efforts against terrorism. "The Egyptian state has to strike with a fist of iron at terrorism," Al Wafd's leader Al Sayyed Al Badawi said.
"Those killed in Libya are not just Coptic martyrs, but they are martyrs of all Egypt. The state has to avenge for them."
Egypt has a large community in oil-rich Libya- mostly workers. In August, Egyptian authorities repatriated thousands of the expatriates after fierce fighting erupted between rival militias in Libya.
With input from agencies
